This morning I woke up around 6AM and drove a few hours to Salt Lake City. From approximately 9AM Until noon, I caught up on work/emails in a Starbucks in the suburbs south of Salt Lake City. From there I drove to Downtown Salt Lake City to visit Temple Square (http://www.templesquare.com/). Temple Square is a 10 acre compound/headquarters/historical site for the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints (Mormons). The 10 acre site includes the Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake Tabernacle, Salt Lake Assembly Hall, Seagull Monument, and two Visitor Centers.
I walked into one of the visitor centers and inquired about the starting location of the upcoming 3PM tour. Within a minute, two enthusiastic, smiley young ladies in their early twenties were already waiting to give a private tour of temple square. We started walking through the Visitors Center until we arrived at a miniature model of the Salt Lake Temple. The original Salt Lake Temple was visible at the same time through large, floor-to-ceiling glass windows a few hundred feet away. The Salt Lake Temple was constructed in the 1850s when Brigham Young (the then president of the church) decided to build a place of worship in Salt Lake City. Now, the immediate area of the church also includes the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, a Mormon Church Headquarters building, and beautifully landscaped grounds.
During the tour, the girls mentioned that they are currently volunteering for one year in missionary roles. Sister Li was from China and the other Sister was from Australia. They seemed to be so happy, enthusiastic, devoted, and passionate about their belief. I asked questions about how long they have been associated with the church, what “God” was to them, what the Mormons believe, what the purpose of life is, and more. Their belief seemed to be based on their status quo/upbringing (Australian Sister’s belief) and witnessing the improved quality of life of devoted believers (Sister Li’s belief). There wasn’t much logical thinking, deep analysis, or looking into the potentiality of falsehood of their religion.
After walking across Temple square to the other Visitor Center, we walked up up the ramp to the Jesus statue room. In this room, there is a statue of Jesus against a background of a night sky with stars, planets, and clouds. I sat down on one of the chairs and they pressed a button that played a recording of Jesus’s sayings about how we should deal with other people. Afterwards, we took a photo in front of Jesus and they abruptly mentioned that the tour would end here. It was sort of unexpected, which caused me to believe that my questioning had bothered them. It was nice hearing them share their beliefs and experiences though, and it was interesting to witness how passionate and genuinely happy/fulfilled they seemed to be. It was as if they weren’t concerned with whether or not the religion was true/real or not, but rather they loved the lifestyle and the peace of mind/meaning that being a part of the church offered them.
After the tour of Temple Square, I drove to the Natural History Museum with the intention of hiking the nearby trails. I noticed an unmarked trail starting from the street corner and began the hike up. Along the way, I asked a few hikers about the whereabouts of the “Living Room Trail” which I had read about on Trip Advisor and eventually made my way up the approximately 2.5 mile round trip trail. The hike ends at an overlook with 180 degree views of the City below. At the overlook, there are two make-shift sofas constructed out of rocks facing the directions of the view (sort of like sofas facing a TV), hence the name “Living Room Trail.” At the overlook, I met two recent university grads from Boston, one of which was working on a Master’s Degree in Salt Lake City.
After the hike, I drove back to Downtown Salt Lake City with the plan of viewing the “Meet the Mormons” movie screening at 7PM. Across the street from the Temple Square is a new mixed-use shopping mall development named “City Creek.” The mixed-use development is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints alongside real estate developer Taubman Centers. The following link provides some fascinating background on the development: http://www.sltrib.com/news/2488265-155/city-creek-center-a-mall-built?fullpage=1
Here are some ideas/principles at use in this world class, cutting-edge development that can be applied throughout the industry for malls that still want to remain relevant:
- Mixed-Uses
- Simple, solely retail-use malls will be at a competitive disadvantage into the future. Nowadays, it’s important for malls to be 24-7 living spaces where people can live, eat, walk, socialize, and shop. Nobody needs to go to a mall just to shop anymore. City Creek plans for this trend in its design by incorporating over 700 residential units, a 20-restaurant food court, outdoor living spaces, and by creating accessways between the new development and the already existing 1.5 million square feet of surrounding office buildings.
- Experience-Oriented
- On the same note, malls aren’t necessary for shopping. There are much more convenient, cheaper ways to shop. Nowadays, malls need to fun, interesting, pleasant atmospheres. City Creek is exactly that. Throughout the project, there is a common theme of nature, water, and seamless indoor/outdoor transitions. The centerpiece of the mall is a circular water fountain. Throughout the indoor and outdoor portions of the rest of the mall, there is a flowing creek (including boulders and vegetation) that adds a lot to the atmosphere and experience of the shopping center. Also, the quality of the development is visible throughout. The developers didn’t cut any corners to save costs, including building a retractable glass ceiling on the indoor portions of the wall, building a firepit, and having plenty of outdoor seating available throughout the project.
- Walkable/Urban
- Suburban malls are dead. The barrier of having people getting into the cars, driving to a mall, parking, and walking inside the mall is just too much to overcome and will only become more difficult and insurmountable as e-commerce becomes increasingly convenient. In this respect, City Creek also passes with flying colors. The developers wisely separated the enormous city block into smaller blocks, thereby increasing the accessibility. As the below diagram shows, the mall is almost entirely surrounded by high-rise office buildings. Yet, with almost no frontage on the Main roads, the mall seems to be porous and almost one with its surroundings. Now, there are five main vertical passageways leading all the way from “Temple Street” to “100 South Street.” The middle passageway (Main Street) is the only passageway through which there is vehicle traffic. Main St also has numerous train stops in front of the shopping center, thereby providing additional foot traffic.
All in all, this mall did everything it could right. It’s a masterpiece given today’s knowledge. However, at the end of the day I’m not sure this type of project is viable and applicable to other projects around the country. This project was not a purely economical, profit-oriented undertaking. The church likely had more significant priorities such as increasing traffic to Temple Square and improving the image of its immediate surroundings. I doubt a traditional real estate developer could make this project pencil out as a purely financial undertaking. Could the stores in City Creek be expected to have $500/SF plus of annual sales? I really don’t think so. This project is located in Salt Lake City, not NYC, LA or Miami. Long term I highly doubt malls will be able to achieve and maintain the inflation-adjusted $500/SF sales threshold. Online shopping is too convenient and cheap to not eventually become the overwhelming retail sales channel.
After walking through the mall, I walked across the street to the Temple Square and LDS complex/headquarters. I was approached by two additional LDS missionaries who began discussing the religion with me. Once again, they seemed to be genuinely happy and passionate. The Temple Square is a great place to practice socializing and debating. There are an endless number of young missionaries whose sole job and purpose is to talk to tourists.
A few minutes later, at 7PM I headed over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, a stunning, historical building next door to Temple Square. Inside the building, there was a 7PM screening for a movie named “Meet the Mormons.” I sat through about 30 minutes of the 77 minute movie. The movie was basically a PR move to change the stereotype of Mormons, by introducing the audience to diverse non-Mitt Romney-like Mormons. For example, the three Mormons we were introduced to was an African-American education counselor/bishop, Hawaiian/Polynesian Football Coach, and Costa Rican family. The movie was extremely fake and artificial. I felt like I was watching a mixture of a Viagra commercial, Sandals Resort Commercial, and Pharmaceutical company commercial. It was an educationally-empty film simply created for PR purposes and to sway public opinion/views. Something interesting I learned from the movie is that the Mormon Church doesn’t have any paid clergy/bishops. All clergy and bishops working at local churches are volunteers. This probably leads to the clergy/bishops having more pure motivations.
